So far, the Seventh Seal is not very interesting, as the scenes are yet going slowly.
I heard from other people in my class how reading subtitles really bother them, but I'm personally okey with the subs. As i read the subtitles, i can listen to the characters' swedish. It's like mutlitasking: reading a book and listening to the radio at the same time. I think the swedish language is funny, sounds to me like a whole bunch of gurgling and bumps. It's interesting, because whenever i listen to different languages, i hear different tones and as mr. bennett calls it, the "musical quality" of languages. For example, when i listen to different chinese dialects which i do not understand, i hear something so similar to mandarin, the dialect i speak, and i get this feeling like if i just listen more, then i can understand what they are saying. The feeling of the dialect spoken sounds so familiar, yet, there's always this invisible barrier that prevents me from understanding. Quite differently, if i listen to korean, i hear this really fluid, bubbly language. When i hear russian, i feel my tongue tripping. When i listen to spanish, i hear babbling. But when i listen to plain old english, that's all i hear--plain old english. But thats just me. I guess different people can hear different things within a language.
Here are some things i've noticed:
Perhaps Antonious Block's (is that the noble's name?) servant may be an existentialist. (I know i haven't been mentioning much on this belief of existentialism--i'm not that fond of this topic), but was it he who said, "meaningless in heaven, indifference in hell"? A few times already throughout the film, he laughs at the matter of God while others are punishing themselves in the name of God and kneeling in awe. He seems to take a bit of a sarcastic personality when it comes to this divine power as well.
And also, i noticed that the director cuts the intense choir music immediatly in the scene where the villagers don themselves in black clothing and parade through the town in a most torterous manner while inflicting punishments on themselves and others. At the same time the music is cut, the camera lingers on a completely empty field, as if to mention that the people only came and passed. were they even there? or a pigment of one's imagination? or will the towns people go right back to the jocular events they were enjoying themselves in before this procession arrived? These are all questions that the sudden disappearance of these people brought to mind.
I regret to hear that you don't find the film interesting. But, you can't win 'em all.
ReplyDeleteYour comments about Squire Jons seem to imply that you are somehow offended by his attitude toward religion. Actually, he invokes the name of God respectfully at one point, so it's not clear that he's an atheist. He hates religious zealotry and hypocricy, though. But, try not to take these things personally. He is representative of a way of thinking about God. The knight represents another, and Joseph, a third.